The use of optical fibers in communication systems is rapidly expanding due to the large bandwidth capabilities of optical fibers. With the development of optical cross connect switches, the use of optical fibers will increase. One challenge in construction of large-scale optical cross connect switches is that optical fibers must be precisely aligned to the switching element in order to allow for switching of an optional signal between optical fibers. Many current attempts to align and hold fibers work only for 1 dimensional arrays. One attempt to deal with this problem is discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,907,650 entitled “High Precision Optical Fiber Array Connector and Method” issued to Sherman et al. This patent discloses shaping the end of the optical fiber into a cone shape, inserting the cone shaped ends into openings in a mask to engage the surface wall and then bonding the fibers in place. This approach has drawbacks which include the requirement that the optical fibers must be processed such that one end of the optical fiber is essentially conical in shape.